Sextant clock

ABSTRACT

A time indicating clock incorporating a novel conventional clock design by elimination of a clock face upon a case, the device comprising a configuration of a nautical sextant and which includes numerals indicating hours along an arc and accross which a pivoted arm sweeps, the arm selectively pointing out one of the hour numerals, and the arm carrying a minute indicating mechanism.

United States Patent Onstott [54] SEXTANT CLOCK [72] Inventor: Edward D.Onstott, 413 Maplewood Drive, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80907 221 Filed:March 30,1970

21 Appl.No.: 23,760

[52] US. Cl. ......58/2, 58/125 C [51] Int. Cl. ..G04b 45/00, G04b 19/20[58] Field of Search.....58/3.2, 125, 128, 127, 152 D,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,465,045 8/1923 Kern..58/125 51 Oct. 24, 1972 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 300,98411/1928 Germany ..58/3

Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-Edith C.Simmons Jackmon 57 ABSTRACT A time indicating clock incorporating anovel conventional clock design by elimination of a clock face upon acase, the device comprising a configuration of a nautical sextant andwhich includes numerals indicating hours along an arc and accross whicha pivoted arm sweeps, the arm selectively pointing out one of the hournumerals, and the arm carrying a minute indicating mechanism.

1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures SEXTANT CLOCK This invention relatesgenerally .to time indicating clock.

A principal object of the present'invention is to provide a clock thatradically differs in design from a conventional CLOck that traditionallyhas a circular eliptical, square or other shaped clock face upon whichone or more indicating hands are used, and wherein the clock face ismounted upon a case containing the clock mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a sextant clockwherein the clock has the configuration of a well known conventionalnautical sextant such as is used in taking the elevation of heavenlybodies.

Still another purpose of the present'invention is to provide a sextantclock which indicates the time in minutes and hours.

Other objects of the present invention are to provide a sextant clock which is simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture, rugged inconstruction, easy to use and effecient in operation.

These and other objects will be'readily evident upon a study of thefollowing specification and the accompanying drawing wherein;

FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of the present invention, and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side view of'a mechanism between a clock motorand the hour and minute indicating mechanism;

FIG. 3 is an enlargement of FIG. 2 showing component parts and powerflow in clock mechanism.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, the reference numeral representsa sextant clock according to the present invention wherein there is asupporting base 1 1 upon which there are upwardly extending posts 12 andupon which there is secured a sextant configurated design 13; The designl3 'includes a'sector of a circle, the sector including an are 14upon'which a plurality of numerical digits 16 are imprinted or engraved,the digits or numeralslS representing the hours of time, the digitsreading from one to twelve such as is employed on conventional clockfaces.

An arm 16 is supported on and rigidly attached to a shaft 36 from whichprotrudes a pin 17 as support for mirror 20. Shaft 36 passes looselythrough the apex of a frame 18 of the sextant design 13. In order tocomplete the illusion of the sextant design fully resembling anauticalsextant, a telescope 19 is secured to the frame 18, a mirror 20 issecured to the am 16, the face of the mirror passing transversely acrossthe axis of the shaft 36, secured thereto by pin 17, and a plurality ofsets of filters 21 and 22. The filters of the sets are individuallypivotable about pins 23 so that they may be brought into the position ofa line of sight travelling from the telescope 19 to a stationary mirror24 and then to the mirror 20 that is pivotable by means of the pivotablearm 16. These features serve for effect but are not essential in theoperation of a clock mechanism.

The arm 16 is provided with a window 24 within which the numerals 15 maybe selectively observed. An indicator arrow 25 engraved or imprintedupon arm 16 serves to precisely indicate the hour time. Thus as the arm16 sweeps across the are 14, certain of the numerals 15 can be observedwithin the window 24 indicating to the observer the hour of time.

The same end of arm l6further carries a minute indicating mechanism 26.The minute indicating mechanism 26 includes acylinder 27 having acylindrical side 28 which comprises a face upon which minutes numeralsor digits 29 are imprinted. A second window 30 is formed on the arm 16and through which the minute numerals 29 may be observed. An indicatorarrow 31 upon the arm 16 points precisely to the exact minute of time.

The cylinder 27 is rigidly mounted upon a shaft 32 supported in hearingsin brackets 33 formed on the rear side of the arm 16. To properlysupport shaft 32, the other end is introduced in bearing 39, boredtransversely through shaft 36, thereby completing arm 16, minuteindicating mechanism 26'and shaft 32 as an integrally pivoting unitabout the longitudinal axis of shaft 36. Suitably placed on shaft32 isbevel gear 34 held in place by setscrew 40. This setscrew also providesrotatable adjustment to provide numerical integrity between minutemechanism 26 and hour sector 14. Once in proper adjustment thisintegrity is maintained by meshing bevel gear 34 to bevel gear 35,toothed in ratio 1 to.72. Therefore minute indicating mechanism 26 wouldmake one complete 360 revolution for each 5 travel of arm 16, underwhich sector 14 is mounted on statically mounted frame 13. Since sector14 is inscribed with hour indicating numerals 15 placed at 5 intervals,and minute indicating mechanism 26 is inscribed with numerals 29indicating 60 divisions in 360 it follows that window 30 of arm 16 willallow 60 minutes of time to be observed during the passage of each hournumeral 15 on sector 14 as observed through window 24 of arm 16.

Bevel gear 35 is rigidly mounted on bearing 38 which is in turn rigidlymounted on case 37 Case 37 is in turn statically mounted to base 11through supports 12, as is frame 13 and all of its describedappurtances. Suitably supportedin bearing 38, shaft 36 next passesthrough spiral (clock type) spring 41' pinned at its beginning with pin42 to shaft 36, thence spirally around suffrciently to impart acomparatively constant torque to shaft 36 through 60 or one-sixth turnand ending in hook 43 formed in spring 41 held by pin 44 rigidly mountedin case 37. The purpose of spring 41 is to impart sufficient torque in acounterclockwise direction to shaft 36, which if free to rotate will.return arm 16 to point of beginning of clockwise travel wherein the FIG.1 on hour sector 14 appears at indicia 25 in window 24. Due to properinitial setting of bevel. gear 34, the FIG. 0 on minute indicatingmechanism 26' will simultaneously appear at indicia 31 in window 30. Atthis point arm 16 is in a position with respect to frame 13 and hourindicating sector 14 to begin its timekeeping function. This isaccomplished by extending shaft 36 to rear of case 37 through bearing 45and providing a power train which will overpower resistive torque ofspiral spring 41 to cause arm 16 to proceed in a clockwise direction.Clock timing motor 46 which may be alternating current synchronous,direct current chronometric or manually wound spring has an output shaftspeed of one revolution per 12 hours. Pinion gear 47 mounted rigidly onclock timing motor shaft 48 meshes in a ratio of l to 6 with gear 49idly mounted on shaft 36. The l to 6 ratio between pinion gear 47 andgear 49 will impart to gear 49 an effective torque amplification of 6and a rotational speed of l revolution per 72 hours. Gear 49 is held inplace longitudinally on shaft 36 on the rear side,and is free to rotateagainst collar 50 rigidly attached to shaft 36 by setscrew 51. Powerflow proceeds from gear 49 to mechanism labeled CLUTCH in FIG. 3. Thisclutch mechanism provides the reciprocating motion imparted to shaft 36and through it to arm 16, alternately furnishing drive to arm 16 toperform its timekeeping function, then releasing shaft 36 and arm 16 tobe returned to its starting point from torque provided by spiral spring41. Another function of the clutch mechanism is to provide a releasefrom shaft 36 and arm 16 to permit setting to proper time of day.Setting of the arm 16 to indicate correct time is accomplished bymanually rotating minute indicating cylinder 27, or setting knobsattached to either end of shaft 32. Interaction of bevel gears 34 and 35will move arm 16 in either direction and retain integrity of minutescale 29 to hour sector 14. As in conventional timepieces, nodifferentiation is made between A. M. and P. M. time.

In this form, the arm is made to travel from right to left in the courseof 12 hours, the minute face making a complete revolution each hour,after which the arm will return instantaneously to the extreme right torepeat the cycle. In another form the time-keeping motion could proceedfrom left to right, hour and minute scales being reversed from firstdescribed form and arm returning from right to left to repeat cycle.Another form would register minutes on the sextant sector, the armreturning to its starting point each hour and advancing what was theminute indicator, now inscribed 1 through 12, one figure for each returnof the arm. A nother form of power train would place the clock motor atthe bottom of the arm, its pinion engaging a rack formed around theperiphery of the circular sector forming the bottom of the sextantframe. By toggle mounting motor and its pinion, release could beaffected allowing arm to return to its starting point at which timetoggle mount could be made to reengage pinion to rack.

From the preceding paragraph it will be seen that it is not my intentionto restrict the invention to the precise details of construction shownin the accompanying drawings, it being apparent that such may be variedwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Thus there is provided through the use of the described arm and itsdrive, placed on suitable background, a novel sextant clock having noconventional clock face and wherein reading the same is accomplishedfrom scales located as upon original conventional sextants. Not onlywill it present time with equal accuracy of conventional clocks but itsform will be a radical departure from tradition and furnish aneducational and interesting conversation piece for those who have aninterest, or even a passing interest, in things geographical, seafaringor astronomical.

Having described the invention, and being aware that a clock with a dialof circle sector shape is not new, what I do claim as new and desire tohave protected by Letters Patent is:

1. A sextant clock comprising a base, a plurality of upstanding legs onsaid base, a sextant like configuration comprised of a frame of a circlesector shape incorporatmg a clock mechanism for indicating the hourindicating a selector of said hour and a second of said windowsindicating the numerals of minutes of a minute mechanism comprising arotatable cylinder supported on a rear side of said arm, said minutecylinder and said arm being driven by a clock mechanism, said hoursbeing indicated on an are mounted on said frame upon which numericaldigits are indicated reading from I to 12 and are used for indicatingthe hour being displayed through said first window as said arm traversessaid arc, a return spring for returning said arm to said 1 oclockposition after it has reached the 12 oclock position.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE (,ICR'IH ICATE ()F CORREC'IION Patent No.3,699,761 Dated October 24, 1972 Inventor(s) EDWARD D. ONSTOTT It iscertified that error appears in the above-identified patent and thatsaid Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

On the cover sheet, below the "Abstract", '1 Claim,

2 Drawing Figures" should read 1 Claim} 3 Drawing Figures Add Figure 3as shown on the attached page.

Signed and sealed this 20th day of November 1973.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD mmmcnmdn. RENE. m TEGTM YEE x a, Attesting Officer ActingCommissioner of Patents FORM P0-1050 (10-69) USCOMM-DC scanee 9 U S.GOl/ERNMENT PRINTING OFI ICE: I999 O3 6G 334 PAGE PATENT NUMBER3,699,761

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1. A sextant clock comprising a base, a plurality of upstanding legs onsaid base, a sextant like configuration comprised of a frame of a circlesector shape incorporating a clock mechanism for indicating the hour andminute of time, said frame having a telescope, a stationary mirror and aplurality of sets of filters mounted thereon, an arm pivotably mountedat one of its ends to said frame, a second mirror comprising a pivotablemirror being mounted upon said arm by means of a pin, the opposite endof said arm being provided with a pair of windows, the first of saidwindows indicating a selector of said hour and a second of said windowsindicating the numerals of minutes of a minute mechanism comprising arotatable cylinder supported on a rear side of said arm, said minutecylinder and said arm being driven by a clock mechanism, said hoursbeing indicated on an arc mounted on said frame upon which numericaldigits are indicated reading from 1 to 12 and are used for indicatingthe hour being displayed through said first window as said arm traversessaid arc, a return spring for returning said arm to said 1 o''clockposition after it has reached the 12 o''clock position.